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Recent Posts
- VA: Retrieving drugs from def’s underwear wasn’t unreasonable
- D.Minn.: Particularity for PC doesn’t mean BRD
- E.D.N.C.: Person with lock on a storage unit has apparent authority to consent to its search
- AR: Taking two minutes to review a SW application doesn’t make issuing judge not neutral and detached
- MO: No REP in hotel room mistakenly renting hotel room to unwanted guest
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
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"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“I am still learning.”
—Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)). -
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced."
—Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984). -
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence."
—Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961). -
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987). -
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today."
— Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting). -
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property."
—Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765) -
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment."
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) -
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth."
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). -
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable."
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987) -
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected."
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967) -
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting) -
“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989) -
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Monthly Archives: August 2025
Reason: Automated License Plate Readers Are Watching You
Reason: Automated License Plate Readers Are Watching You by Jacob Sullum (“The technology enables routine surveillance that would have troubled the Fourth Amendment’s framers.”)
VA: Dog repeatedly jumping onto the vehicle during the dog sniff was a search
The drug-sniffing dog’s repeatedly jumping onto and placing paws on a vehicle during a drug sniff constitutes a physical trespass for the purpose of obtaining information, and therefore qualifies as a search under the Fourth Amendment. Commonwealth v. Wiggins, 2025 … Continue reading
MS: The CIs were co-conspirators and eyewitnesses and could be credited
The three informants were co-conspirators, eyewitnesses, and participants in the crime, and their information could be credited for search warrant. Taylor v. State, 2025 Miss. App. LEXIS 292 (Aug. 12, 2025). Defendant’s 2255 re-raises his Fourth Amendment claim already rejected. … Continue reading
Reason: Warrantless Use of License Plate Reader Cameras Is Unconstitutional
Reason: Warrantless Use of License Plate Reader Cameras Is Unconstitutional by Joe Lancaster (“A new campaign pushes back against the widespread use of automatic license plate readers without warrants.”) {Not likely.}
CA2: Subsequent officer’s entry into protective sweep wasn’t unreasonable; it was considered part of the first
The protective sweep of defendant’s garage which led to an observation that made it into the warrant application was reasonable. A later entry into the garage by another officer wasn’t unreasonable. It mimicked the first. United States v. Constantinescu, 2025 … Continue reading
MN: Mere propinquity to armed person not RS
Frisk of appellant for merely being near an armed person was without reasonable suspicion. In re C.T.B., 2025 Minn. LEXIS 392 (Aug. 13, 2025). There was arguable probable cause for defendant’s arrest. The claim that evidence was fabricated fails. “But … Continue reading
CA5: Officer’s resting hand on truck while talking to def wasn’t a seizure
The officer resting his hand on defendant’s truck while talking to him during a stop was not a separate seizure of him. United States v. Larremore, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 20757 (5th Cir. Aug. 14, 2025). The closest case plaintiff … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Open carry is not RS
Alabama permits open carry, and doing so is not reasonable suspicion. United States v. Mitchell, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156980 (M.D. Ala. Aug. 13, 2025):
CA9: Day care centers pervasively regulated for administrative searches
Child day care centers are sufficiently regulated by the state that they may be inspected. Foothills Christian Ministries v. Johnson, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 20697 (9th Cir. Aug. 14, 2025). Defendant’s challenge to the basis for his stop that led … Continue reading
WaPo: Checkpoint with ICE agents met by protesters in D.C.
WaPo: Checkpoint with ICE agents met by protesters in D.C. by Emma Uber and Lauren Morello (“Department of Homeland Security agents stopped cars at a busy intersection for seat belt violations and broken taillights.”):
W.D.N.C.: Photographic evidence of basis of stop not required
Where the stop is based on partial covering of the LPN, a photograph is not required at the suppression hearing. United States v. Tribble, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156885 (W.D.N.C. Aug. 13, 2025). Plaintiff’s issue of “the application for and … Continue reading
TX8 sustains geofence warrant
TX8, El Paso without much discussion sustains a geofence warrant. Also the warrants for the phone and social media accounts were issued with probable cause and were particular. Alvarez v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 6106 (Tex. App. – El … Continue reading
CA8: Running when asked about a gun was RS
“Running in response to the question about the gun is what gave the officers reasonable suspicion to think he might have one.” Then he tossed his gun “while tussling with officers.” United States v. Chumley, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 20497 … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: No exigency shown for warrantless domestic entry
Based on the complaint, there were no exigent circumstances justifying the warrantless entry into the home for a domestic disturbance that had calmed way down before police got there. Intertwined is the qualified immunity claim, and there’s not enough here … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: A mistake on the address was made up for by other detail; no Franks violation
“To the extent the lack of an address lessens a warrant’s particularity, the other information more than makes up for it. … In this case, Walters highlights one factual error: No glass door bearing the numbers ‘13624’ existed when the … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: RS determined at the time of stop, not by what found after
A “black man with a waving a gun” did not justify defendant’s stop. When officers arrived, he was just there. No gun visible or apparent. Reasonable suspicion is determined at the time, not after the fact. United States v. Wilder, … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: Pole camera not governed by mosaic theory
Pole camera surveillance of a resident was reasonable and the mosaic theory did not apply. United States v. Green, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 20410 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 12, 2025):
Latin Times: Trump Administration Pushes to Use Spanish Language as Grounds for Immigration Stops
Latin Times: Trump Administration Pushes to Use Spanish Language as Grounds for Immigration Stops in California by Pedro Camacho (“The administration argued that agents should be able to rely on these indicators when enforcing immigration laws.”) I had an associate … Continue reading
MI: Two controlled buys where def left house to do it and returned was PC for house
The informant’s information here [to me] was conclusorily stated by the officer to be reliable [not discussed], except there were also two controlled buys from the defendant where he left his place and returned. [The latter is enough.] People v. … Continue reading
Four on IAC claims
Appellant doesn’t get a CoA on his claim he could have appealed the denial of the suppression motion despite the guilty plea. United States v. Penton, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 20172 (5th Cir. Aug. 7, 2025).* “Thus, Loston’s claim fails … Continue reading